A Verduner born and raised, Violet Grant States was a trailblazer who led a life of service despite the racism of the time. Violet studied piano as a child and hoped to become a music teacher, winning admittance to McGill's Macdonald College.
Her path was blocked by the college dean who asserted that parents would not allow their children to study under a woman of colour. She withdrew from the college but soon won a scholarship to the Conservatoire de musique. She graduated and began teaching music!
In 1940, she attended a recital on Mount Royal by the Montreal Women's Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of conductor Ethel Stark. Young Violet was determined to join the orchestra. Curveball, the MWSO already had a pianist. So Violet took up the clarinet.
She joined the orchestra in 1943 at the age of 20. The MWSO was the first professional Canadian ensemble to play Carnegie Hall and Violet Grant had the distinction of being the first woman of colour to perform in a Canadian symphony. She remained a member until 1965.
That experience was transformative for Violet, giving her confidence to pursue her educational goals. She earned degrees in Arts and Education at a by then more enlightened McGill University in 1968, becoming a public school educator.
Which brings us back to Verdun. Violet taught music in English schools for many years. Remarkably, she also helped Verdun Elementary kids open their first bank accounts, imparting early lessons on saving and money management to hundreds of children.
Though she attended Union United Church, was married there to Roy States in 1958 and played organ and led the church choir for several years, Violet became a Bahá'i in 1961 and remained an active member of that faith community.
Violet Grant States was named a Grande Verdunoise and a Bâtisseuse de la Cité in 2017, in recognition of her life's work. though she was by then too frail to take part in the event. She died at the beginning of 2022, just a few days shy of her 99th birthday.
She was by all accounts an exceptional woman, one not discouraged by those who said "No." She touched thousands, whether by teaching music, leading choir, helping kids save their pennies or by being the lone Black role model in a classroom or orchestra seat.
I hope that one day Montreal honours her by naming a street after this Grande Verdunoise and Bâtisseuse de le Cité, Violet Grant States.
- Mary Lamey
Epilogue:
In the fall of 2019, a digital exhibit celebrating the historic Montreal Women’s Symphony Orchestra was installed in a public space at Place des Arts. Mrs. States, in a wheelchair, was able to visit and see the projected images of herself and the other orchestra members while hearing some of the pieces they played back in the 40s.
The story of the orchestra is told in a 2015 book titled From Kitchen to Carnegie Hall, by Maria Noriega Rashwal.
